Hello stalkers!Today we have a huge announcement to make! Mega Patch number 5, Black Stalker, is already live! You can download it via Steam client and enjoy the new content. And believe us, there are big changes and upgrades to the story, gameplay and overall experience!
So let’s start and talk about what has been just added to the game!

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Deeper meaning[/h3]
We have added two new levels and two new quests! Every one of them is important, but the Prologue will answer questions about Igor you might have asked before: why is he here? Why did he return here now? How did he even know that much about chernobylite or how was he able to build that portal gun? This will be now revealed.
Igor life is one, big, complicated story and you’ll be able to feel that even better now. By adding this new content you’ll learn more about him and Tatiana. You’ll see for yourselves the Dream Beginning, which will clarify a few things, but to understand them fully you’ll have to dive into Chernobylite’s plot.

Sounds are always helping a lot to build a specific mood, so we also think about improving that side of the game. That’s why you’ll hear new music in Chernobylite, that we think you’ll enjoy a lot. Just enter the game and it will be there!
Let us know if you like it! We really think that’s a good audio piece and it will significantly improve your experience.
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Totally new things![/h3]
First of all, we’re happy that we’ve managed to keep a secret from you. You asked us a lot about a little feature called…

ARMOR. Yes, you heard us right. Now you can craft 3 types of armor, also with 3 different types of inserts. Remember it still needs more work and that’s only our first approach to it.
Also, we’ve redesigned crafting a bit. New workstations will allow you to feel more control over your hideout and also to improve your experience during the missions. You will be able to create completely new stuff of which every single one will have an impact on your gameplay. New equipment, new devices, new possibilities! And there are lots of them!

But you told us that it would be nice to be able to craft more advanced things while on a mission. We really took this advice seriously and we made that happen. So that’s why now you can build special stations, covers and traps - all of this when outside of the base! Just think about all the tactical possibilities of creating minefield and luring your enemies onto it...
We encourage you to do it! We worked hard on that too, but it’s still an experimental feature, so your feedback is very important to us! Tell us what you think about these new possibilities, how do you use them, if they are working the way you could expect or maybe even add some more ideas to our own ones!

And when we’re talking about crafting: remember those useless things you didn’t need and just threw them away? Well, you will be allowed to disassemble them into raw materials thanks to a recycler you can now build in Igor’s base!
As for other new information, we’ve added new stealth takedowns! We’ve talked about them in some recent Weekly Reports, but just to remind you: now, to be quiet, Igor will have to learn the skill from Olivier. Also, there are new melee animations for every single weapon - in the future, we will make sure to make melee damage depend on the type of weapon and it’s possible upgrades that you can build.

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New missions and levels too![/h3]
Another level is Fractal World “Black Stalker” - you will be able to visit it when finishing a new investigation on the board. And there are also the two new missions: they are connected to major Kozlov and are part of different companions’ chains. So you can encounter Kozlov in two different situations. First one is a mission called “Kozlov killing” and it’s a part of Mikhail & Olga chains, the second one is called “Kozlov kidnapping” and it’s a part of Tarakan & Sashko chains. Pretty straightforward mission names, right?
These two tasks will be important to the whole story and, as always, your decisions will have an impact on what will happen next. And what about the missions themselves? We think especially killing Kozlov may bring some memories back to those of you, who visited Pripyat years ago in a completely different game…

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Parkour, baby![/h3]
“Yes sir, Olivier, sir!” As Anton would say in this kind of situation. We’ve added the support for HDR, so it can be interesting to you, but please remember that it’s only the first approach to that and it will probably need some final touch later. But it does look great!
Igor actually got some training in between our recent patches! Now he’s able to dodge, just like some enemies already do - if you make him dodge in the right time, he will completely avoid all damage from either a gunshot or melee hit.
Igor also started to move better and even watched some parkour movies - you can tell by knowing now he can climb and jump over smaller obstacles. So this means no problem when running and encountering some barrel.

Oh, and we did improve the placeholder voiceovers - you know, that “strange”, reverse-like voices in some of the dialogues. Now they are less annoying (at least in our opinion), but if you still don’t like them much, remember you can turn them off at the menu.
We have also added a lot of fixes, most of them thanks to you, your feedback and perceptiveness! If you want to check out particular fixes, look for a Steam post (here, on game page) with all the changes listed.

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Remember to join our streams![/h3]
This few days ahead, starting today, we will be doing more streams, showing you the game in the current state, so you’re all invited to join us! We will be also answering questions if you have any!
Here’s the link to the transmissions, it’ll always be the same one: https://steamcommunity.com/broadcast/watch/76561198887982618
So that’s all for this week.
Take care, stalkers!